On 29 March 1849, at a ceremony in Lahore Fort, ten-year-old Dalip Singh was told to sign a document. Writing his name in Roman letters, the boy-king renounced, on his behalf and on behalf of all heirs and successors, every ‘right, title or claim’ to Punjab. All of the kingdom’s property, including the Kohinoor and other jewels, now belonged to the British. The Sikh kingdom gone, all of Punjab was annexed to British India. The proclamation of annexation, read out that day by Dalhousie’s Secretary, Sir Henry Elliot, ‘was received by those present with silence’.
